Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 (Page 2): I own a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 2 in 1. I did upgrade it with the new Samsung M.2 2TB SSD and a 4 TB SSD It made it a terrific machine. It is a i7 and 16...

John Solak

maggiemae wrote:

I am looking into buying a new laptop because my old one is not able to handle Lightroom or Photoshop very effectively. So far the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 seems to be the best for the price and funtionality. I really like that it can function as a tablet and make use of a pen. My main question is does anybody on here have one and what are your opinions on it. Thanks for any info.

I own a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 2 in 1. I did upgrade it with the new Samsung M.2 2TB SSD and a 4 TB SSD It made it a terrific machine. It is a i7 and 16 GBs of DDR4 memory. Only issue was when I upgraded to the M.2 we found the battery was swollen. $40 for a new one. It takes 5 seconds to start-up and about the same for a shutdown. Mine has the HD 2 GB video card as well. Nice picture.

DennisC. Loc: Antelope, CA

If you want a 2 in 1 check out the HP Spectra X-360, i7 8750 chip, Nvidia 1050ti card, SSD drive and a 4K screen. It’s fast and quiet.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

maggiemae wrote:

The version I am considering has a 512gb SSD 16 g of Ram and i7 processor. It will run me roughly 2000 which is why I want to know how it actually works. It seems like it would work great based on specs. Plus, it has a 4k hd monitor with 100 percent Adobe color spectrum.

Are you paying extra for the 4K monitor? Dell has some excellent monitors, but 4k will not be to your advantange unless you are playing 4k video. In the past I have purchased Dell's directly from Dell. When doing so I have been able to customize them to my specifications. The laptop that I had before my current MacPro was a Dell XPS 15 and I really liked it. The graphics card died after three years and Dell told me it would mean replacing the motherboard, which meant basically the price of a new computer. I've piggybacked Windows10 onto my MacPro. The only problem I've had is spilling coffee onto it. Arrgghh!!! However, in my estimation, the Dell monitor that I had on the XPS was much sharper than the one on the MacPro. I was very disappointed in that.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

markngolf wrote:

You may want to discuss with this site - recommended by Gene51 - one of our "pros" at UHH.
https://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118-96-98.html#!/graphicscard=81-186&no_cache=true&p=clear
Mark

I will look into it. Thank you for responding.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

Lorendn wrote:

I got the same one about a year ago and love it. The only issue is the very high resolution scree makes the fonts in my Nik plug-ins very small when the screen is optimized for Lightroom and Photoshop. Otherwise it is a dream machine and stows easily in my camera back pack for long trips to Africa.

I have heard that is a problem with some things. Mainly bridge which I don't use. I don't use Nik either so I'm hoping it won't be a major issue.

DaveJ Loc: NE Missouri

SteveR wrote:

Are you paying extra for the 4K monitor? Dell has some excellent monitors, but 4k will not be to your advantange unless you are playing 4k video. .

Respectively,
I disagree. I took some zoo photos I took to Best Buy on a flash drive and viewed them on a Dell laptop with 1080p screen VS: what they call 4K, 3840X2160 and the difference was quite a bit for my photography. After viewing the difference , I bought the 3840X2160. Bonus I did not think about is the 3840X2160 was pen ready, and that is a help in Photoshop. If just viewing videos, what you say is correct, IMO.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

uhaas2009 wrote:

Don't forget the graphic card, you can have the fastest highest processor, memory, Ram.....the graphic card can slow down......

I think it has a good graphics card but I will have to double check.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

Haydon wrote:

Look at a custom built laptop from Sager. Less money more computer.

I'll look into it. Thank you.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

John Solak wrote:

I own a 2 year old Dell Inspiron 2 in 1. I did upgrade it with the new Samsung M.2 2TB SSD and a 4 TB SSD It made it a terrific machine. It is a i7 and 16 GBs of DDR4 memory. Only issue was when I upgraded to the M.2 we found the battery was swollen. $40 for a new one. It takes 5 seconds to start-up and about the same for a shutdown. Mine has the HD 2 GB video card as well. Nice picture.

Thank you. I would like the 2tb SSD but even the 1tb is pushing what I want to pay. I have a 1tb HDD lap top now and it's no where near full so I think 1tb will suffice me. If it ever does become a problem I can always buy another hard drive for storage. I am looking forward to my purchase. My husband told me to spend the extraoney and get what I want cause he is tired of hearing me cuss my current computer lol.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

SteveR wrote:

Are you paying extra for the 4K monitor? Dell has... (show quote)

The 4k monitor is included in the price. I think the only customized upgrades that upped the price I made were the 1tb SSD and the i7 processor. I also am getting the pen that goes with this.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

maggiemae wrote:

I am looking into buying a new laptop because my old one is not able to handle Lightroom or Photoshop very effectively. So far the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 seems to be the best for the price and funtionality. I really like that it can function as a tablet and make use of a pen. My main question is does anybody on here have one and what are your opinions on it. Thanks for any info.

Dell has some great deals on laptops. I looked at the Dell site, and all XPS 15 2-in-1s have SSD drives. If you can, get the model with 16 Gb RAM and upgrade the OS to Windows 10 Pro rather than Windows Home. The base price unit comes with a 265 Gb SSD, and unless you are going to keep images on an external drive, is not really big enough. I'd suggest the 512 Gb SSD.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

DaveJ wrote:

Respectively,
I disagree. I took some zoo photos I took to Best Buy on a flash drive and viewed them on a Dell laptop with 1080p screen VS: what they call 4K, 3840X2160 and the difference was quite a bit for my photography. After viewing the difference , I bought the 3840X2160. Bonus I did not think about is the 3840X2160 was pen ready, and that is a help in Photoshop. If just viewing videos, what you say is correct, IMO.

I did quite a lot of research for this computer and I tend to agree about the resolution. I will also be getting the pen to go with this which was the main reason for getting the 2 in 1 over a traditional laptop.

maggiemae Loc: North Carolina

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

Dell has some great deals on laptops. I looked at the Dell site, and all XPS 15 2-in-1s have SSD drives. If you can, get the model with 16 Gb RAM and upgrade the OS to Windows 10 Pro rather than Windows Home. The base price unit comes with a 265 Gb SSD, and unless you are going to keep images on an external drive, is not really big enough. I'd suggest the 512 Gb SSD.

I am not familiar with Windows 10 pro...is it very different from the home version? I am going to upgrade to the 1tb SSD and the 16g ram. Wish it had the 32g but that is not available and even if it was I probably wouldn't be able to afford it lol.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

maggiemae wrote:

I am looking into buying a new laptop because my old one is not able to handle Lightroom or Photoshop very effectively. So far the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 seems to be the best for the price and funtionality. I really like that it can function as a tablet and make use of a pen. My main question is does anybody on here have one and what are your opinions on it. Thanks for any info.

You can do better:

https://www.xoticpc.com/msi-we63-8si-239.html?startcustomization=1

MSI motherboard and 8th Gen i7-8750 6 core 12 thread cpu
32 gb ram
NVidia Quatro P1000 with 4 GB vram - 30 bit color graphics card (for better support of wide gamut displays)
1Tb m.2 NVMe PCIe
2 TB SSHD hybrid Seagate FireCuda 2.5" drive
Windows 10 Pro
3 yr Parts and Labor/Lifetime free tech support

$1877.92

I have directly purchased or had others purchase from Xotic for the past 6 years - they are a solid company that stands behind what they sell - they also have some possibly lower cost gaming laptops using Sager motherboards. These are what I have purchased in the past, and my be all you need. Aside from the company, I like buying laptops with some degree of user-upgradeability. These allow you to buy a system that will accommodate up to 64 gb ram, and up to 4 onboard storage devices. The Sager notebooks have particularly nice looking screens for photo editing.

I am going to recommend against getting a laptop that has only 16 gb ram that is not upgradeable. File sizes are getting bigger, software is always going to demand more and ram is one of the first places you will hit a bottleneck. I consider 16 gb entry level, 32 appropriate for most, and up to 64 for power users doing a lot of HDR, compositing, focus stacking and large pano merging.

You may find that photo editing with a touch screen is not to your liking. I prefer using a separate, much more accurate Wacom input tablet. I tried using a Surface and hated the experience. But your mileage may vary.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

maggiemae wrote:

Thank you. I would like the 2tb SSD but even the 1tb is pushing what I want to pay. I have a 1tb HDD lap top now and it's no where near full so I think 1tb will suffice me. If it ever does become a problem I can always buy another hard drive for storage. I am looking forward to my purchase. My husband told me to spend the extraoney and get what I want cause he is tired of hearing me cuss my current computer lol.

In most cases an external drive will not be nearly as fast as an internal one.